A highlight of team sports such as soccer, lacrosse and volleyball is playing an officiated game against another team. Typically, each game has its own head referee (“ref”), who may officiate the game by, inter alia, blowing a whistle. For example, a soccer referee may blow a whistle to commence or to stop play because, for example, play has crossed the boundaries of the field, a foul has been committed, or a successful goal has been recorded.
When only one game is being played with only one referee operating a whistle, the players in that game know to stop play and to whom to look for direction when they hear the whistle. But problems often arise when more than one game is being played in close proximity to one or more other games. Sports tournaments often run concurrent games across adjacent fields, at least in preliminary rounds. To scale the game for younger players, 2-3 pitches are typically created from a single adult-sized playing field. Generally, the games being played at the same time are well within hearing distance of each other. Each game in the tournament is assigned a unique head referee. At such tournaments, all of the refs typically use the same type of whistle (pitch, warble and color) to officiate the games. Generally, these same types of whistles sound very much the same when a whistle is blown by a referee.
At such a tournament, the players from one game may hear a whistle and believe it was their ref who blew it. But they may have heard a whistle blown by another ref officiating at another, albeit nearby, game. In response, the players who heard the whistle from an adjacent game may mistakenly stop play causing confusion and possibly giving advantage to the other team. Even if the players are confused for only moments by the whistle blown by a ref from a nearby game, such confusion may be the cause of injury as one player believes play has stopped and lowers his or her expectation of contact with a competing player. Thus, the playing fields in close proximity can become dangerous when players easily mistake a nearby whistle as an official whistle for their game.
FIG. 1 graphically illustrates the confusion a player on field 2 may experience when a referee on field 1 blows a whistle.
The problems of players mistaking a whistle from a nearby game for their own official's whistle are not limited to single refereed tournament games. A game between two teams in other sports may involve more than one referee with a whistle. Again, each referee in the game is likely to have the same whistle which sounds the same as each other referee's whistle in the game. When a football referee blows his or her whistle, the players have seconds to reset and run the next play. In lightening quick play during the final minutes of a game, as well as at other times, players can be assisted by knowing that the play has been called dead by either the head referee, the umpire the head linesmen, field, side or back judges. Linesmen, typically locked up with defensive players and unable to see the infraction or its location on the field can be confused about where the new line of scrimmage will be. This confusion can cost the team valuable time. For an offense, it may limit the number of plays it can conduct in the remaining time on the clock. For defenses, it can help speed player substitutions and readiness for play. For coaches and commentators, the mere blowing of a whistle for a foul does not assist them in recognizing what the call may be for. In the world of professional football, a plethora of technology and staff can overcome these delays. However, most amateur level games do not have the benefit of either.
Another time when confusion may occur about who blew a whistle is during sports practice. During a practice, different groups of a team may be practicing with respectively different coaches on the same playing field. During a practice, more than one coach may be drilling or scrimmaging their players in the same general area. Practices generally involve significantly more whistle blowing as a means of communication than actual competitive play. At a practice, whistles may be blown by one or more coaches thereby communicating to the players that they should direct their attention to the coaches for additional instruction. The tweeting of multiple whistles by coaches in close proximity to each other can significantly diminish the value of the drills and unnecessarily interrupt scrimmaging.
The confusion that may occur during games or tournaments by referees who all use the same sounding whistle is even further exacerbated when younger players are involved. As noted previously, for the purpose of using existing adult-sized purpose-built soccer fields, 2-3 scaled-down pitches may be lined within a single field. So, for example, when a number of soccer games involving younger players are occurring on a Saturday morning in the same general area, the chances that a player from one game may be confused by a whistle blown by a ref from another game are increased. The playing fields are smaller so it is more likely that players from one game would interpret a whistle from another game as their own or at least be confused by the whistle. Moreover, the younger players may be more confused by ref whistles, in general, than older players who play with their heads up and regularly watch the referees and their positioning.
There is yet another point to consider relating to the issue of official whistle blowing in sports games. In modern officiating of sports like football and basketball where multiple whistling referees are simultaneously on the same field or court, the ability of the head referee to understand which referee stopped play without looking for a visual clue can dramatically reduce time between plays. This could alternatively be accomplished with expensive radio systems for the entire referee squad, but few amateur events can afford such an expense. Post-game video/audio review of referee performance after a game or match can also be enhanced by knowing who blew the whistle. As most referees leave their whistles in their mouths during play, it is almost impossible to look at video of a game and tell which referee stopped play and jurisdictionally whether this stoppage was within their scope of responsibility. Such reviews can lead to improvements in squad assignments, positioning and efficiency during the game.
For additional background, the following materials are incorporated by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 945,311 to Fendrich, U.S. Pat. No. 1,930,504 to Benjafield, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,316 to Gertler.